


Friday

by writinginthedust



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 04:37:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17015871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writinginthedust/pseuds/writinginthedust
Summary: Birthday gift for Everlark Birthday Gifts. I can't remember who this was for or what they wanted but I hope I delivered!It's Friday night and Peeta is reminiscing about Friday night's gone before...





	Friday

_He grinned and reached for the blueberries._

If someone had told Peeta Mellark that at the ripe age of 28 he would be spending his Friday nights in the supermarket and _enjoying_ it he would have laughed at them and said that he couldn’t have thought of any worse place to be.

When he was young and looked like a chubby blonde cherub (not the best description of himself) his Friday evenings were spent tying a scarf around his neck and heading off to the cub scouts. Then, when he was older and done with knots and building fires, his Friday’s belonged to his best friend, Delly.

They would hang out in Sae’s diner, sitting in the cheap plastic corner booth that had become their spot, splitting a strawberry milkshake that tasted anything like strawberry. When his mother got sick of him ‘wasting his time,’ she made him be useful instead and then his Fridays became bakery nights.

_He put the blueberries in his basket and checked the next item on his list._

Peeta had gotten into the rhythm of the bakery quickly; clean the kitchen, prep for the Saturday morning rush, sneak cookies for friends. When his father insisted that Peeta shouldn’t be doing work that neither of his older brothers had to do, Peeta managed to curb his mother’s agitation by following Rye into the wrestling team. 

For years until college, Peeta’s Friday nights were spent pinning his peers to the ground followed by banter and bravado in the changing rooms that always smelt of teenage boy sweat, no matter how hard the janitors tried to bleach it away.

College Friday nights was when Peeta began a different type of pinning. His dating life had varying degrees of success. Clove, the one-night stand that neither wanted to take any further, Glimmer and the succession of regular, routine Friday and Saturday night hook-up’s where the rule was ‘fun only.’ Cashmere and him tried to date but it wasn’t long before they realised, they had nothing to talk about.

_The next item was strawberries. Peeta looked through the punnet’s until he found the one that had the largest, juiciest looking fruit._

Madge. She lasted a long time. Friday’s with her meant more than college bars and affordable late-night cafes. Madge was art gallery openings, wine bars, theatres and restaurants where they poured your wine into glasses for you to taste.

The problem was they were students and while Madge had family money to burn, Peeta didn’t. His art history degree meant that his parents, namely his mother, refused to help him through college and so he survived via budgeting and working when he wasn’t studying.

_There was champagne in the aisle next to the strawberries, the grocery store promising someone a good night. Peeta grinned and moved past it._

It was apparent Madge wanted a champagne lifestyle while Peeta was on a strict lemonade budget. They parted on sad but amicable terms with Madge saying that maybe in another world, another life, it would have worked out.

He genuinely believed it would have done. He considered getting his finances in place and started looking at his life options. He was even on the verge of speaking to Madge to see if they could give it another shot.

Then it happened. Correction. _She_ happened.

_Peeta turned around the corner and glanced up and down. There was no one in this aisle, aside from an older man pushing his cart. He frowned and carried walking._

He was at the bar with friends, the smell of stale beer wafting into his nose and the music blaring into his eardrums. He blamed the noise for the fact that his dart missed the board, yet again.

There was a scoff from behind him.

“You’re awful at this game, you know that?”

Peeta signed and ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious,” he replied and turned to face his commentator.

It was Friday night in Haymitch’s. There may not have been any spit or sawdust but that’s what kind of place it was all the same. The rock music wasn’t his style and his foot kept sticking to the floor because of all the spilled beer. But that was when he first met Katniss Everdeen and her piercing mercurial glare.

It was apt that she was an archer, he had told her years afterwards. He was pretty sure that she had somehow shot an invisible arrow straight through his chest. She had rolled her eyes when he said that but he saw her smile and the red flush bloom under her olive cheeks.

_Olives._

_He made a mental note to go back and grab them. He couldn’t leave this store without the olives._

Friday night at Haymitch’s became habit. Peeta had tried to convince Finnick, the guy who somehow had ended up becoming his best friend, that it was because he liked the local ales but Finnick would raise an eyebrow.

“Sure, it’s not Small but Mighty?” he’d said.

“No,” Peeta replied. “It’s nothing to do with Katniss, I happen to like the, um, atmosphere.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I mean how can you say we’re really experiencing Friday night unless you’re not on edge that someone might throw you a punch?”

“You know who _might_ throw you a punch? Tall, Handsome and Angry.”

Aka Gale Hawthorne. Aka Katniss’ not boyfriend. But it was complicated.

“You are rubbish!” Katniss had laughed behind him as the dart landed a good foot away from the board. “I literally cannot help you anymore.”

“I have no idea what went wrong,” Peeta said, gesturing to the board with one hand and rubbing his neck with the other. “Is there a breeze in here? It must have been a breeze.”

“Inside a bar?” Katniss took a swig of her beer. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, it is Haymitch’s bar and not all the windows have full panes of glass in so...”

Katniss had let out a peel of laughter again and Peeta watched as her silver eyes shone. He remembered her hair being in its usual black braid and she had worn her hiking trousers and boots from her day job at the nature reserve.

When Katniss’ laughter died down Peeta had realised that he’d stepped closer to her. To do what he hadn’t known, but the ringing of her laughter had drawn him towards her, like he was a fly drawn in by light. The warmth of her body radiated to his skin and she watched him closely.

Peeta would have stepped back, he’d felt that he was too entrenched into her personal space, had worried that he was making her feel uncomfortable but her eyes had fluttered down to his lips. At the time he wondered if he’d been reading it wrong but the air between them seemed tense. It was like Katniss was waiting.

_There was a crash and a curse and Peeta turned his head. There was a woman at the end of the aisle who had dropped a jar. Luckily there was no breakages but she still looked up, skin flushing red and smiled in embarrassment. Peeta smiled back._

Her eyes had flicked up to his and she had taken a breath in. It was then she had opened her mouth to speak.

“Hey.”

The voice had been low and irritated.

“You ready?”

Katniss and Peeta snapped out of their moment and both turned. Next to them had stood Tall, Handsome and Angry. At that moment he looked _very angry,_ his eyes basically smoke, as he directed his question at Katniss but glared at Peeta.

Katniss had shot a quick glance at Peeta before putting her beer bottle down. “Sure,” she said and reached forward to take Gale’s hand. “Let’s go.”

_The fourth item on the list had been smeared by his thumb. Bee- it started. Beer? That definitely wasn’t it. Beetroot? More likely. He sighed and wished he’d written the list in aisle order but he caught the next item, ice-cream, that had been underlined three times. He grinned again._

“They’re not dating,” Johanna, Haymitch’s barmaid had told him.

“That’s good,” Peeta had said, “he’s not her boyfriend then.”

“But they are fucking.”

Peeta cringed and Joanna shot him a look.

“You asked.”

“Not if they were _fucking.”_

“You asked what was going on between them and I told you. It’s not my fault if you’re upset that he routinely sticks his-”

“Jo!” and he’d begged her not to say anymore because the images were already searing a path into his brain.

“Find yourself another girl,” Jo had said. “They’re not dating but he thinks its only a matter of time. She’s _it_ for him apparently. Marriage and little black-haired babies await.”

A queasy feeling had eased its way into Peeta’s bones as he sat, alone in the bar on that Friday night. Katniss hadn’t shown and neither had Gale so wherever they had been, he’d figured they were there together.

He’d spent the next four Fridays at Haymitch’s waiting for a woman that didn’t show.

_He picked up a pack of Tums and looked at the back, reading the instructions as to who could and couldn’t take them. His cart was filled with blueberries, strawberries, olives, beetroots and ice-cream. No wonder Tums made it onto the list. Peeta glanced up and down the aisles again but Friday night clearly wasn’t the hotspot for this place and he was the only person in that row._

Peeta had been at the bar waiting to order when he heard her speak.

“What’s a nice guy like you doing in a place like this?”

He remembered the shock of electricity that burned through him at her voice and he turned to face her. The smile on her face had been one of nerves and shyness. He hadn’t realised why.

“It was because I liked you, you idiot,” she’d told him ages after when questioned. “I was worried you would flat out reject me and then I’d never have been able to return to Haymitch’s out of embarrassment. And that would have annoyed me even more because I found that bar first.”

“Took a wrong turn and now I’m just hoping they’ll let me leave with both kidneys’,” had been his reply.

Jo’s grin had been just shy of maniac but she had slid both of them a beer and told them it was on the house.

_As he walked down the Pharmacy aisle, Peeta paused at the condoms and picked up a packet for old times sake. “You’re just a wistful memory now,” he said to the box. Of course, he said it just as a guy turned the corner. They both averted eye contact and Peeta threw the box to the shelf but he saw the look of sympathy on the other man’s face._

“I have condoms,” she had told him between kisses. It was Friday night and had possibly been their third date. Or fourth. He couldn’t remember. He’d never counted.

They had been in Katniss’ apartment. It was small, clean and contained minimal personal items. Their date that night had been to one of the late-night art-house cafes that Peeta had liked but Madge never had. They had sat and talked and ate fries.

Peeta had apologised for it not being a spectacular location but Katniss had told him she loved it and Peeta knew in that moment that he loved her.

You’re it for me, he had wanted to say. I think I want marriage and blond and black-haired babies.

But he hadn’t said that. Instead he had told her other things and whether it was his funny stories or his enthusiasm for the artwork or just the way he complimented Katniss on how beautiful she looked, he didn’t know. But whatever he had said that night had her grabbing him by the front of his shirt and dragging him back to hers.

_Maybe he should pick up milk while he was here. It wasn’t on the list but it was always needed. Bread too but his parents would kill him if he purchased bread from a store. Sure, they lived the other side of the district and would never find out but the ingrained guilt was unshakeable._

Friday nights had moved from nights out to evenings in. Either in her apartment or his.

Peeta had graduated and stuck around, first him and Finnick sharing an apartment and then when Finnick left to live with his girlfriend, Annie, Peeta downsized. He had wondered whether the next natural step was him and Katniss moving in together but she didn’t seem to be inclined so he had hovered on the precipice of enjoying what they had and wanting more.

That night Katniss’ phone buzzed and she stretched out her arm from where she lay across Peeta’s lap. The message had flashed up on the screen, one name standing out starkly, _I miss you_ it had said. From Gale.

They’d both tensed. Katniss and Peeta from seeing it and Katniss a bit more so from knowing Peeta had seen it.

Peeta hadn’t said anything but he had let it fester until a few weeks later when they’d already been arguing about something else.

“It’s not like I can ignore him forever, Peeta!” Katniss had yelled at him. “We were best friends growing up, our moms are still neighbours, we have a history!”

“Yeah,” he had bitterly snapped back. “And that _history_ includes fucking him in your bed.”

Her eyes were like stones, hard and flint.

“I can’t change that,” she spat, “and if you’re jealous that’s your problem and if you think I can’t be trusted that’s also your problem and if you don’t trust me than you can just get the fuck out.”

He had told her that he did trust her but that he was jealous. He was jealous that Gale had ever touched her, he was jealous that Finnick had moved in with his girlfriend and he was jealous that everyone was living their lives while he felt like his was stagnating.

Their original argument, he had reminded her, had come about because she refused to let him have a drawer at her place. She refused to even let him keep a toothbrush there. Katniss shouted that it was the path towards trapping her, that he would eventually pressure her into marriage and then be impregnating her soon enough. _Just like Gale._

“I’m not like Gale,” he had told her. “I want those things and yes, I want them with you but Christ Katniss not now. Not _ever_ if you don’t want those things. I’ll learn to get over it. But it’s a toothbrush in a holder.”

He had picked up his coat and kissed her cheek while she stood there stunned. He had left. There were things he should never have said. He knew it but it was too late.

_There were loud noises three aisles along and as Peeta drifted past, pushing his cart, he glanced down to see a group of guys laughing, their eyes red rimmed and stinking of weed, as they grabbed bags of chips. He grinned and shook his head, wondering when did he ever get so domesticated?_

Finnick and Annie had done the friendly cheer up thing and had invited him around for dinner after dinner. Peeta had gone for drinks with colleagues. Rye had even flown out to visit. They’d sat and smoked pot until Peeta passed out and then after the long weekend when Rye had gone home, Peeta became respectable again.

Peeta didn’t even remember what Friday it was. Just a Friday. Netflix was primed and a pizza had been ordered. He remembered his surprise at the knock on the door but more because he thought he had found the quickest delivery place known to mankind.

When he had opened it, it was her. Katniss had stood there with her mercurial glare, still as piercing as the first time he had seen it.

That arrow, he had told her later, still went straight through my chest.

Don’t be silly, she had then replied, but she still blushed.

Peeta remembered that it had been raining that night. The drops were in her black hair and looked like jewels in the dark. Her fist was clenching something and she thrust it out towards him. Peeta remembered that she had been shaking. At first, he thought it had been the cold but then he saw what she was holding out and took it from her hand as gently as if she had been holding him a new-born.

A toothbrush. And a key.

_Peeta hadn’t spotted what he was looking for once. He knew he had been distracted by collecting the list items but he couldn’t believe that he had been that distracted. Or that she was that able to move so quickly. One more item on the list. Something not food related, surprisingly, but something they kept picking up in preparation every time they came into a grocery store._

_There she was, in the last aisle he looked in of course but which should have been the first._

Katniss was faced away from Peeta, her hair long and un-braided flowing down her back. She was laughing with the person in front of her and Peeta’s eyebrows raised in surprise. It must have been seven years since he last saw Tall, Handsome and Angry and here he was. Still tall, still handsome but he didn’t have a hint of anger about him.

Peeta ambled towards them, still pushing the cart, and uttered a ‘hey.’

Katniss turned to him with a smile, “Look who I just bumped into. I was just saying it must have been seven years and he hasn’t changed a bit!”

Gale and Peeta turned to each other and Peeta held out his hand, “Hey man, how you doing?”

Gale shook it with a smile. “Good. Was just saying to Katniss what a surprise it is to bump into her. I was just picking up some last-minute wine.” He waggled the bottle.

“Gale has a date,” Katniss explained, “and he’s making dinner. I was getting him to tell him in great detail what he plans to do with the wine and with all the soft cheese he’s got. I was starting to get really jealous.”

Peeta laughed. “Don’t enable her,” he told Gale. “She’s awful.” But Peeta looked at his wife and her little round cheeks and had to bite his tongue from telling her how cute she looked in public.

“Just tell me if you have brie.”

“Well you say I haven’t changed,” Gale said, “but you, er, definitely have.”

“I look like a squirrel, don’t I?” Katniss asked and Gale chuckled.

“Nope, but I really did bump into you,” and Gale gestured to Katniss stomach.

Peeta watched as Katniss smoothed her hands over her midriff. The bump was pronounced now, her belly button sticking out enough to be visible through her sweaters. Her stomach and her face were the only parts of her body that displayed her pregnancy. From behind Katniss looked the same as she ever did.

“We’re having a girl,” she told Gale with a grin. “She’s giving me massive cravings for ridiculous things but only another month and then she’ll be here.”

“Congratulations,” Gale said to them both. “I’ll ask mom to get your address from your mom, if that’s ok? I’d like to send a card.”

Both Peeta and Katniss nodded and wished Gale a good date before he left.

“He’s totally getting laid tonight,” Katniss said to Peeta as she stepped in closer and wrapped her arm around his middle.

“Yeah?”

“Oh yeah, with wine _and_ soft cheese. Totally.”

Peeta leant forward and kissed her forehead before bending down to pick up the pack of diapers Katniss kept insisting they stock up on before chucking them in the cart. Katniss slipped her hand into his and they walked along, Peeta pushing the cart with his free hand while Katniss caressed her stomach with hers.

“Can you believe we’re spending our Friday nights in the grocery store?” she asked him. “Once upon a time we went to bars, once upon a time we went to restaurants. Once upon a time we took _dance lessons._ ”

“Ah yes,” he replied affecting an air of faux wistfulness. “And how we both enjoyed doing the first dance at our wedding.”

“Well it was better than the time we attempted to try Friday night trampolining.”

“I was good at that.”

“Until you broke your foot.”

“True.”

They ambled along, the glare of the grocery lights shining upon them as they passed the stoners. Katniss giggled, “They stink. Pregnancy has given me super strength smelling. But I could do with some chips.”

They got thrown into the cart and Peeta had visions of Katniss sticking them in the ice-cream. He grinned and squeezed her hand that he was back to holding.

“You know you’re totally getting laid tonight too, right?”

Peeta let out a laugh. “I am?”

“Oh yeah, with olives _and_ ice-cream. Totally.”

“Best Friday ever.”


End file.
